Dr. Brown Looks at Dr. Steve Brown’s Book “Three Free Sins,” and Then Asks, “What Is Grace and What Does It Do?”

Dr. Brown will take an in-depth look at a controversial new book by radio host, pastor, and professor Steve Brown, also asking the question: When God saves us, does He forgive our future sins as well? In the second hour, he’ll address the question of what grace is in the New Testament and what it does in our lives on an ongoing basis.

Hour 1:

Dr. Brown’s Bottom Line: The blood of Jesus forgives and frees us from our sins. The blood of Jesus not only breaks and deals with the penalty of sin, it enables us to be free, over-comers, and to be changed people living out the power of the Gospel in this world. He can do it in you and me!

Hour 2:

Dr. Brown’s Bottom Line: Thank God for His grace! God not only saved us by His grace, but He keeps us by His grace. He not only keeps us by His grace, He calls us higher by His grace. He not only calls us higher by His grace, He gives us wings to fly! How amazing the grace of God!

How Saved Are We? by Dr. Brown: This unsettling book challenges us to ask ourselves what kind of born-again experience we have had if it calls for almost no personal sacrifice, produces virtually no separation from the world, and breeds practically no hatred of sin.

20 Comments

I believe when I got saved knowing that God knows the beginning from the end… all sins past present and future..were forgiven ..said that to say this you can fall out of relationship with him being lead away by are own lust.. but the lord in his word said he would never leave you or forsake us he will through the holy spirit draw you back to himself… but we can choose to turn a deaf ear in disobedience if we stay that way until death then I think you would be lost forever..by choice ( god forbid)

one more comment then iam done ..how fruitful can a servant be who continues to live in sin after they’ve been saved.. could the world tell the difference between us and them.. what do we have to offer them?

Haven’t read the book but I have heard Steve Brown many times. This totally unscriptural doctrine of “being forgiven of a sin before you commit it”, is like saying: “God can raise you from the dead before you die”, or that He can heal you from a wound you don’t have. Yes God made the provision for all future sins from all future people for as long as this world continues, but He will not forgive you if you don’t want to be forgiven, and prove it by your repentance, (which includes forgiving others).

“I’m not guilty of my past sins, because I’ve been forgiven. I’m not guilty of future sins because I haven’t committed any and therefore don’t need forgiveness. I’m also not guilty of sin now because I’m walking in the Spirit and His Grace keeps, as I “walk” (which means obey) through faith, believing that He can keep me.”

We can only serve God in the present.

Saying such foolish things as “everybody sins”, “when you sin”, or “I know I’m going to sin”… Will 100% guarantee that you will. These sayings go against scripture that says “make no provision for the flesh”. These thoughts come from satan and his demons and are perpetrated by defeated ignorant christians and false teachers, but not from God, who says in His word: “We are more than conquerors”, and “walk in the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature”. Stop sinning now and become a real christian. 1 John 3 For “He who abides in Him does not sin”… and “he who sins is of the devil”. As long as you are walking in the light you are a child of God. If you at anytime choose to walk in darkness you are at that very second a child of the devil.

A reviewer on Amazon said, “This `come as you are and stay as you are’ message is not the Gospel.
The Gospel says “Come as you are and be transformed into a new creation walking in the newness of life. Denying yourself and taking up your cross daily as you follow Jesus.””

The cheap grace ditch has a new proponent; beware of mortars from the Pharisee ditch.
The elevated highway, the daily walk, is also Love, Joy, and Peace: the Gospel! The cross we endure is being set apart from the world.
Paul summed it in Romans: license to sin is not GOD-given.
Many look for an excuse; there is none.
The finger in the sand is as powerful as the finger that wrote the Tablets; the Spirit cannot deny either, written and sealed on our heart.
Three-in-One in agreement.
Grace and Law intertwined.
In Him, Ron M.

I have to say, this radio show was powerful. I’ve been struggling and many times, the only thing that I can do is pray. However, I don’t know what to pray almost all the time because I don’t really know what my problem is. This makes it hard for me to know what to ask for. Thank God for giving us the Comforter and thank God for His grace. I pray that God gives me the grace to overcome because I can’t do it on my own. Just a thought: If Jesus taught His disciples to pray and to ask God for forgiveness, we should know then that there are future sins that we need to be forgiven of. And didn’t Jesus warn His disciples that if they didn’t forgive, God wouldn’t forgive them? I believe that Jesus meant past, present, and future.

David Roberts,
At the risk of being put on the ‘moderator watchlist’ again 🙂
I turned to Ezekiel 45 this morning, and thought
I might have something to say about it.
John Hagee got in trouble about a ‘dual covenant’ stance, and had to back off. Jesus of Nazareth said, “You will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD.'”
But this COULD mean that the Jewish nation accepts Him as Messiah rather than Savior as we know Him. In Rev. 1:5, Yeshua speaks of Himself as “Prince of the kings of the earth”; this could be a direct reference to latter Ezekiel, where the sacrifices will be reestablished in the Millennium. How important is it for the Third Temple to be built on earth?
“Those who worship [GOD] must worship in Spirit and truth.” Yes, but this is not precisely a counter-argument; they can be seen together.
“The Law written on our heart.” Not a compromise, but fulfillment. GOD can’t ‘undo’ His covenant to Israel, as evidenced in many passages in the OT. But the living will still be eating and drinking during the Millennium; so kosher meat is essential to again living close to the thousand years. Thus the ‘sacrifices’ again become sacred to the value of life, administered by the Messiah, without actually being a substitute atonement.
In Him, Ron M.

Listen, the worst and the least wise advice in OUR time would be exactly of the sort that would add complacency to sanctification.

But as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.
~ 1 Peter 1:15-16

There is no escape from the need to live exemplary life. There are plethora of reasons for it, and the fact that a book of the sort which was mentioned, was actually written, only adds another reason to the list.
1)Unbelievers are ALWAYS study how Christians act and live.
2)Contemporary evangelical church (not talking about other ones) losing, if has not lost already, sense of discipline (if one to compare it to church of the past).
3)Seems also that Church has historical tendency to cave into whatever culture demands. “Oh couture accepts this, we better adjust to accommodate that”. (this of course raises lots of questions of how we are to relate to culture and all…)
4)There seems to be one of the most popular American cliches “noone’s perfect”, and it seems to invalidate all attempts of discipleship and discipline. This is one tricky and pretty dangerous animal.
[a] First, the logic goes to say that it is objectively true that noone’s perfect but God. Well, who would object to that statement?
The problem with this cultural cliche is not affirmation that “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18), but that it seems to be used not much as theological statement about praise of God, but rather as an excuse to succumb to weaknesses, sins, flaws, etc.
To put this cliche to test, let’s just ask: “is the rapist of other person perfect”? the answer is “no”. “Is the person being raped perfect?”. the answer again is “no”. So, how is cliche that “nonone is perfect” helped us to differentiate or evaluate actions of anyone? well, on practical level this popular cultural cliche is of very little use, and of enormous danger. It would be better if it never existed in the mind of a culture.
[b] Second, this cliche which is based on Romans 3:23 (“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”) is more at home with Reformed church with their strong emphasis on TOTAL depravity. You see, their theology seems to favor such positions. I mean, if we could attain perfection why would Jesus had to die? Well, again this is not disputed. But, seems to me they simply have this weird enjoyment to paint everything in dark and sinful and dirty colors to make God on the face of it look brighter. You see what I mean? I am not saying that God is not Holy, or that a man is not sinful… or we can earn salvation (Ephesians 2:8). But let’s be reasonable here, and have healthy balance.
In the similar manner, Reformed who believe in 5 points of Calvinism seem to deny free will because they see it as a “threat” to God’s sovereignty and “empowerment” of a creature. I mean, if you see what I am saying, you can see analogies there. Free will is bad since it robs God of sovereignty, and sinlessness is bad since it rob God of his grace and forgiveness. I know I am exaggerating here and this is somewhat stereotypical, but in the broad sense, doesn’t it make sense?
So, I think some Christians actually would resists notion of being “holy in all your conduct”(1 Pet. 1:15-16) on the ground I just explained.
Look, I am not after Calvinism or anything of this sort, but I’m just saying that I noticed this line. Perhaps I even wrong there… and maybe even creating a caricature. I am curious if anyone else could read something like that between the lines, or is it my imagination? 😉
5) Media always presents Christians as hypocrites of the worst type.

In light of all that Christians cannot lower the standard. This is simply not a good strategy. A Christian Church which has no or little distinction from the world is not even attractive, nor seen as capable of changing people, thus not viewed as divinely guided or supernaturally caused. Kingdom of God must be here and now and it must yield results, if it to be taken seriously. It may be legitimate point to ask “how can a Church raise its practice of spiritual disciplines, or produce better disciples. These are great questions to tackle. But lowering standards is certainly not a viable option, especially right now, in this weird cultural climate.

I didn’t know who Steve Brown was. I searched the web, and behold he teaches at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida.
Just like I suspected. 😀 Coming from Reformed theological school.

Speaking of forgiveness of sins in past, present, and future….
Look, this is a very peculiar question. I can see WHY this doctrine is put in this sense. If you look at it from certain perspective, it sort of makes sense.
There was only one, and single crucifixion, one resurrection, and one atonement in Jesus Christ. Because there is only one Savior and one sacrifice, it pays for all sins. Since sins in the past, now, and in the future are fall into category of ‘all sins’, then “yes” it seems that.
But this seems to be related to the fact that only through Christ sin can be forgiven. All sins whenever and by whomever they are committed eventually pass so-to-speak through Christ’s sacrifice. It doesn’t really mean that one is free to do whatever he/she wants.

I genuinely believe that those who fallen away from Church and became atheists, were Christians before. Thus, they rejected their salvation. Calvinist theology which teaches that salvation cannot be lost I view as unsubstantiated by Scriptures.

New Testament constantly emphasizes actions. It is hard to read through it and not see the high ethic, and call to sanctity of all believers. I think it takes determined effort in a type of certain theological school to underemphasis that.

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
~~ Heb. 10:26-31

“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
~~ Mat. 7:15-23

This simply emphasizes that Christian life is not just repetition of some sort of printed prayer of a sinner and then continue on living like nothing happened. Faith and actions are intervened no matter how hard reformers tried to divorce the two, as overreaction to Roman Catholic Church (I am not defending Roman Catholic Church here at all, just trying to see that pendulum sometimes swings too far).

It was Andrew who tried to walk on the water with Jesus, not Peter, and he ran around the boat a few times and invited all the other disciples to join him, which they did. They all went ’round and ’round like this until Jesus told them it was time to stop and get back in the boat.

I don’t see why you make such a big deal out of this. Why do you say it was just Peter who went out of the boat to walk with the Lord?

Once we come to the cross, we forgive each other, so just let it be.

I will not be responding with you any futher on this subject, but I’ve included a letter to your pastor letting him know that you are causing division in the church.

And besides all this, I can drive my car into your’s any day I like and I’m not responsible to pay you for any damages because your legaly parked car got into the way of where I was wanting to drive.

I must say that for Dr. M. Brown to review Steve Brown’s book on his show without asking Steve to come on and discuss it was extremely lame and shameful. Why not have another show and invite Steve to come on and discuss things? I think everyone would be amazed at how much agreement would be had. I am an avid listener of both Michael’s and Steve’s shows and would like to see some fairness here.

I haven’t read the book or even heard Dr. Brown’s commentary on it (at least not as of the writing of this post) but one thing that comes to mind fairly prominently whenever this sort of issue is raised is that the way men view sin in light of salvation.

I fear that the one worried much about how many sins they have (or another has) has not really obtained much in the way of true, deep forgiveness. Whereas the one who has is not ready to immediately bring out the list of those who don’t inherit the Kingdom when someone is caught in sin.

But what, I think, is the problem with books that seem to revel in this grace in a sort of “in your face” manner, is that they don’t really understand forgiveness. They are of a spirit that does not really consider that real, deep, immense forgiveness is only so because of the depth of sin from which one is forgiven. And to have an attitude of what seems to be almost pride in grace is to take forgiveness for granted and really not understand the heart of it.

Consider Luke 7:36-50. Simon was all worried about the fact that the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet was a great sinner. Jesus pointed out her love for Him in doing what she did and revealed He indeed knew she had sinned a great deal. But her love was shown in tears and blessing. She knew who she was and who He was. Jesus’ approval and forgiveness reveal that the spirit of humility and love that the woman showed were what He sought. And when Jesus told her that she was forgiven, saved and released – He said “go in peace.”. He didn’t say “Go boldly.”.

If we are awful sinners and we are forgiven, how precious is that grace and forgiveness that God grants! And why would we run roughshod over it by making an issue out of how much we can sin and still have God’s grace! Isn’t that the license that Paul warned against? I would venture to say that that is awfully close to “doing despite to the spirit of grace”.

One thing that amazes me about this illustration that Jesus gave is that it, at once, brings to light the legalist and the antinomian. Without conviction of a deep sort and great sweeping revival based on that conviction, I fear this generation is simply going over the antinomian cliff. There are a few that try to resist it, but many of them simply want to reinstate the law on stone tablets….